{"id":38782,"date":"2018-04-23T14:45:21","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T04:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=38782"},"modified":"2018-04-23T14:57:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T04:57:30","slug":"praise-nuclear-disarmament-eventually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/praise-nuclear-disarmament-eventually\/","title":{"rendered":"In praise of nuclear disarmament \u2026 eventually"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons<\/a> (ICAN) has been diligently promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons<\/a>\u2014usually just called the nuclear ban treaty\u2014since it was opened for signature on 20\u00a0September 2017. ICAN\u2019s Australian office has been busy convincing Australian federal politicians to pledge their support for signature and ratification. And it has achieved an astounding measure of success\u2014astoundingly high in relation to Labor and Greens parliamentarians, astoundingly low in relation to Coalition parliamentarians. Over 70%\u00a0of the current Labor parliamentary caucus has signed the pledge. Less than 2%\u00a0of the current Coalition parliamentary caucus has done the same.<\/p>\n

The treaty enters into force 90\u00a0days after 50\u00a0states have ratified it. Given that 122\u00a0states supported the final text of the treaty in July\u00a02017, some might well have imagined that entry into force was a fait accompli and could be achieved in a matter of months.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been. So far, 58\u00a0states have signed it, but only seven have ratified it. Those seven are Cuba, Guyana, the Holy See, Mexico, Palestine, Thailand and Venezuela. No nuclear-weapon state has signed. Nor has any country benefiting from an extended nuclear deterrence relationship with the United States.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look more closely at what the parliamentary pledge requires of parliamentarians. (A copy can be found here<\/a>.) The signatories undertake to do three things:<\/p>\n